Kokoro Connect

Guest Author - Lesley Aeschliman

Kokoro Connect is an anime series based on a light novel series by Sadanatsu Anda.

The main focus of the series is a group of five high school students who are members of the Student Cultural Society. This club was formed by these five students because their school requires every student to be part of a club, and the school either didn't have a club that interested them or something happened to cause them to leave a club they had been in.

The president of the Student Cultural Society is an easy-going girl named Iori Nagase. Iori joined the club after she asked her homeroom teacher to choose a club for her. Himeko Inaba, the vice-president, is the exact opposite; instead of being easy-going, she's rather serious and tends to be skeptical. Himeko had been a member of the school's computer club, but she quit after having a disagreement with the president of that club on the first day.

Taichi Yaeashi is a big pro-wrestling fan, but there was no wrestling club at the school for him to join. Yoshifumi Aoki is Taichi's best friend and he's also in love with fellow club member Yui Kiriyama. Yui is a girl who likes fancy things, but the fancy club at the school no longer exists.

In the first episode, Yoshifumi and Yui's souls switch places with each other the night before, but they switch back before coming to school. When they try to tell the other club members, Yui tries to claim that Yoshifumi is making it up. During the meeting, Iori and Taichi find that their souls also switch places. Himeko doesn't believe any of what's going on, and thinks they're all playing practical jokes.

From what I've seen online, it appears that the soul-swapping continues throughout the series. However, I can't say whether or not I think this will work well, since I've only seen the first episode. The first episode basically establishes the premise, but that's about it.

I thought that Kokoro Connect has an interesting idea behind it, and it's not a bad series. However, there's just not quite enough in the first episode to compel me to want to watch the episodes as they stream on Crunchyroll. However, at such a point that Sentai Filmworks releases the series on home video, I'd be more than willing to check it out from the library to see how the series progresses.

If you like high school stories with light humor and a soul switching premise, then you'll probably like Kokoro Connect. With some of the content in the dialogue of this series, I would personally recommend Kokoro Connect to anime viewers who are 15 or 16 years of age and older.